I have been thinking about how I would describe this last weekend and in one word- WOW. What an adventure it was. We left on Tuesday morning, Aug 14. While on SR-12 crossing White Pass a passing log truck kicked up a rock the size of a baseball that struck the driver's side windshield of the Freightliner. It pretty well went right through, showering the entire interior of the truck with shards of glass. Thankfully both Kim and I had our sunglasses on which shielded our eyes from the flying glass. We checked our vitals and after finding them intact continued on. A few hours later while on I-90 in Spokane a trailer tire blew, tearing the fender on the trailer apart. It was then that I found the spare didn't fit. Wahoo...... Two hours later we were on the road again. We arrived in Billings at 4 am on Wednesday morning. A quick four hours of sleep later and we were heading to the Rimrock Mall for a car show. I had been contacted the previous week about a car show publicizing the upcoming race and asked to appear. I am glad I agreed after seeing the thousands of people who came by the cars on display. Autographs and handshakes were in plentiful supply. Wednesday afternoon we took the car to the track and set up our pit space. The Yellowstone Dragstrip facility is without a doubt first rate. If it was at sea level it would be home to many national records. After getting our pit space set up our tow rig was delivered to us by Menholt Chevrolet. They supplied a 2007 Chevy 3/4 ton crewcab truck for us to use for the weekend. The folks at Menholt are truly nice people. I don't think I can say enough positive things about them. There is no doubt in my mind that if I was in the market for a new truck that they would be my first choice of where I would buy it.
We had three qualifying runs, one on Friday, and two on Saturday. Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the field. Our best run managed to get us into the ninth position out of ten cars. But it was a eight car field. We weren't last but we did fall short of our goal of qualifying. In retrospect though it was an allstar group of cars with the heavy hitters of division five, six, and seven. Maybe my goals weren't realistic? When I consider that this was only the third time out with the new Miner Bros motor and only the fourth time out with the new car I shouldn't have chose such lofty goals?
Now for the good news- We didn't hurt anything substantial and learned a ton about how to run this new combination.
On friday night after qualifying we put on a salmon feed inviting everybody I could find. Kim and Marlene did a fantastic job of barbecueing the salmon brought over fresh from Quinault Pride Seafoods. We must have fed fifty or sixty people including many of the track workers and the announcers. When we ran Saturday they couldn't say enough about how good the dinner was. I was hoping the goodwill our dinner had brought would be remembered and I apparently underestimated how big of a splash it had made. I see now that I have started a welcome tradition. I wanted to repay the people of the Billings area for their hospitality. They treated us wonderfully and I can't wait to go back. The track is great, the people are some of the nicest I have ever met while racing and I still have that goal of getting into the show. So in the words of my hero- "I'll be back". Dave Germain
We had three qualifying runs, one on Friday, and two on Saturday. Unfortunately we weren't able to get into the field. Our best run managed to get us into the ninth position out of ten cars. But it was a eight car field. We weren't last but we did fall short of our goal of qualifying. In retrospect though it was an allstar group of cars with the heavy hitters of division five, six, and seven. Maybe my goals weren't realistic? When I consider that this was only the third time out with the new Miner Bros motor and only the fourth time out with the new car I shouldn't have chose such lofty goals?
Now for the good news- We didn't hurt anything substantial and learned a ton about how to run this new combination.
On friday night after qualifying we put on a salmon feed inviting everybody I could find. Kim and Marlene did a fantastic job of barbecueing the salmon brought over fresh from Quinault Pride Seafoods. We must have fed fifty or sixty people including many of the track workers and the announcers. When we ran Saturday they couldn't say enough about how good the dinner was. I was hoping the goodwill our dinner had brought would be remembered and I apparently underestimated how big of a splash it had made. I see now that I have started a welcome tradition. I wanted to repay the people of the Billings area for their hospitality. They treated us wonderfully and I can't wait to go back. The track is great, the people are some of the nicest I have ever met while racing and I still have that goal of getting into the show. So in the words of my hero- "I'll be back". Dave Germain
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